QANTAS Domestic Free NBN Trial (Feb-Sept 2017)

[coyote25]

Interesting article in The Age today about a proof of concept trial using the NBN Satellite service on some QF Domestic flights from February to September.

"The broadband is expected to be fast enough to stream video, television and live sports"

"... each passenger will get speeds similar to today's fixed broadband. "This is not a shared service to the plane"

Only one 737 (VH-XZB) setup so far which apparently took 10 engineers 900 of work. I'd expect they would get better at rolling this out the more than do.

So interesting test, the promise of broadband speeds in the sky would get a lot of people in. If the concept test works I wonder how much they would charge for the service?

NBN broadband available on some Qantas flights in February

 

[moa999]

That was what AJ initially said, but the trial aircraft are going to be heavily speed restricted

20 Mbps per plane (so below an nbn25 plan, sufficient for maybe 3-4 HD streams)

http://blog.jxeeno.com/qantas-sign-trial-satellite-product-nbn-wi-fi/

One hopes speed increases when it gets out of trial or there is no chance of real streaming.

Actual launch now pushed out to 3Q 2017, so would expect it to be well into 2018 before the 737/332 rollout is complete

 

[mviy]

Some people have more than 20 Mbps at home on the NBN. So 20 Mbps for a whole plane load is nowhere near enough for a good experience watching video.

 

[samh004]

One hopes speed increases when it gets out of trial or there is no chance of real streaming.

I was always expecting streaming to be funnelled through their Qantas Entertainment app anyway, that way they're limiting the number of streams, instead of every passenger creating their own stream of the same content. I figure it'll eventually be Live2Air but with email/web browsing thrown in.

 

[big_RED]

I really hope they activate this new offering and keep it going! I think it's a little crazy that no Australian airline offers internet services on their planes (as far as I'm aware), while in America you can get internet on a lot of the services these days.
I know some people are concerned about people taking on telephones while others are trying to sleep on international routes. I suppose this is something they'll have to review and police. But having access to emails, websites, messaging apps etc is a great thing I feel!

 

[downgraded]

50 billion dollars or so to watch tv and play games.

 

[Mal]

Some people have more than 20 Mbps at home on the NBN. So 20 Mbps for a whole plane load is nowhere near enough for a good experience watching video.

Do people really have an expectation to be able to stream video on a plane from the Internet? In flight wifi should only support basic forms of web access and block content heavy items like streaming, torrents, videos etc.

 

[eminere]

Do people really have an expectation to be able to stream video on a plane from the Internet? In flight wifi should only support basic forms of web access and block content heavy items like streaming, torrents, videos etc.

+1

And also block VOIP

 

[clazman]

Need to mention latency on the link of around 1000ms

 

[Hvr]

50 billion dollars or so to watch cough on tv and play games.

You missed a couple of words. :shock:

 

[moa999]

Do people really have an expectation to be able to stream video on a plane from the Internet? In flight wifi should only support basic forms of web access and block content heavy items like streaming, torrents, videos etc.

I didn't have that expectation, but that was what AJ said..

I agree with you it should have limits, on order to provide decent service to all.

 

[coyote25]

QANTAS has now run a test flight with good results;

Qantas reporting typical download speeds between 7Mbps and 12Mbps to each connected device.

https://www.ausbt.com.au/qantas-inflight-wifi-trials-peg-the-needle-at-12mbps-per-device

 

[clazman]

QANTAS has now run a test flight with good results;

Qantas reporting typical download speeds between 7Mbps and 12Mbps to each connected device.

https://www.ausbt.com.au/qantas-inflight-wifi-trials-peg-the-needle-at-12mbps-per-device

Notice they didn't say how many devices......

 

[Punky]

Notice they didn't say how many devices......

I read it as the plane being full, but would be good to know the exact number of devices.

 

[waflyer]

I read it as the plane being full, but would be good to know the exact number of devices.

140 people on over 200 devices (see A big milestone for Qantas Wi-Fi - Qantas News Room)

 

[moa999]

I read it as the plane being full, but would be good to know the exact number of devices.

More detail here - over 200 devices.

http://www.qantasnewsroom.com.au/roo-tales/a-big-milestone-for-qantas-wi-fi/

 

[RichardMEL]

mods - perhaps merge this thread with the other one on the same topic?